BOB (ROBERT) MUIR Monday 19th December, of one of its long term educators, Bob (Robert) Muir. Bob had been fighting cancer for a number of years and died at his home in Broome with his family around him. Bob joined the staff of Nulungu College, in July 1985 for a few months, after arriving in Broome with his family on a around Australia trip. Bob’s first address in Broome was Bay 14, Roebuck Bay Caravan Park. A few months in Broome became a few years, then decades. Bob left St Marys College as a full time teacher at the end of 2003 but remained as a casual staff member and continued his engagement with the students through his involvement in the homework centre and as a tutor up till 2008. It was Bob’s speciality to teach Science and Maths. He worked in less than ideal circumstances for a number of years, as the “science lab” was then located in Room One, which still exists. This “Science Lab” was a general purpose classroom, with the addition of one sink and two metal cupboards to house a limited collection of scientific gear. Despite these circumstances, Bob worked hard to create a scientific learning environment with fastidious lesson preparation. Eventually a science room was built which Bob moved into with relish. This science room, now the H&PE classroom, was recently replaced this year with two new science laboratories. As an extension of Science a horticultural course was established by Bob with the school’s first vegetable gardens and orchard established in the area where the new science laboratories are now located. In the community, Bob was a talented tennis player and was known as the “wizard of slice” which enabled him to win many competitions including many at a master’s level. Bob was tennis captain for the Broome Tennis Club. For many years, Bob organised tennis coaching and competitions for Nulungu/SMC students and the town’s juniors. He was at his happiest in either running on the beach or body surfing the waves and swimming at Cable Beach. It was Bob who started training the first Nulungu swimming squad to take on Derby District High School in the Derby community pool. Broome had no public pool at this time so Bob and Lea Grinter somehow organised for the students to train in the Continental Hotel pool and at the Woodside Workers Camp pool in Herbert St. Bob was instrumental with a town group that persuaded Woodside to leave the pool behind when they relocated the Workers Camp to Karratha in the late 80’s and started the fundraising for a public pool which later morphed into BRAC. A humble and gentle man with no airs or graces, most people would have been unaware that Bob had a Doctorate in Zoology, as he never used his honourific title of Doctor. On Monday, during a store room clean up, a banner created by the students and staff to celebrate the arrival of the millennium was discovered. On the banner Bob had penned the following words, “To Try Is Everything”. This encapsulated Bob’s ethos! Rest In Peace. Our love and prayers go out to Caroline and the family; Jeremy, Danielle and Heidi and Bob’s extended family and grandchildren. Tribute by Michael Lake Dec 2011